NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – FDNA announced today that it has formed partnerships with the Asia-Pacific Society of Human Genetics (APSHG) and the University of Hong Kong in order to improve its next-generation phenotyping technology in Asia-Pacific populations.
Under the terms of the first deal, FDNA will work with the APSHG to train the company's Face2Gene technology — which uses facial analysis, deep learning, and artificial intelligence to evaluate symptoms of patients with rare genetic diseases and suggest possible diagnoses — to recognize phenotypes for all Asia-Pacific ethnicities. As part of this effort, APSHG will host a meeting at its annual conference in Thailand where FDNA and genetics experts will discuss ways to advance precision medicine in the Asia-Pacific region.
FDNA has also launched a center of research excellence at the University of Hong Kong, where researchers will work to improve Face2Gene's performance with patients of Chinese origin.
"Up until now, there has been a relatively small amount of actionable genetic data specific to Asia-Pacific populations," APSHG President Lai Poh-San said in a statement. "This work can change this forever and impact the lives of tens of millions of patients."